


Uncomfortable

by secondbutton



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-10
Updated: 2014-12-10
Packaged: 2018-02-28 22:04:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2748794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/secondbutton/pseuds/secondbutton
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>First, the questioning about his life as a templar and their vows, and now she's returned a few days later, asking him about things that were much too... personal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Uncomfortable

She lived just to make him uncomfortable, he knew it.

First, the questioning about his life as a templar and their vows, and now she's returned a few days later, asking him about things that were much too... _personal_.

"What do you think of the people you work with?"

He liked them just fine--the other advisors were skilled and efficient and the three of them together balanced each other out effectively. But really, he'd already wasted enough of the Herald's time. Didn't she have something, anything really, that didn't involve her standing in front of him, being much too curious and much too attractive for her own good?

"Cullen?"

"—Err, sorry, what do you mean?"

"How do you like working with Josephine? Leliana?" She looked so earnest, and he knew for a fact that her interest was genuine—he'd heard Cassandra share her stories about Nevarra and her earlier days as a Seeker with her, witnessed as she listened, enraptured, while Solas recounted his dreams in the Fade, and laughed alongside her while Varric recounted tales about Hawke's misdeeds in Kirkwall that even he had never known about.

_'She's not paying you any special attention, you dolt. She's trying to become friends with everyone here.'_

He shared his thoughts about his colleagues with her, and she nodded along, absorbing what he said.

"I really like Josephine and Leliana too. Josephine is very friendly, but not in a way that makes it seem like she's just entertaining you until you run out of things to say and she can politely excuse herself from the conversation," she supplied. "Leliana is tough, but you're right, she is the most passionate so I suppose the hardness has to come along with that. I did get her to talk to me about the Hero of Ferelden though, and she seemed very... fond. This Hero must have been really special for Leliana to trust them so implicitly."

Cullen nodded. He had his own memories of the Hero, though he suspected that they were not nearly as pleasant as Leliana's.

"I'm glad you enjoy working with them, though. I think you all complement each other nicely."

"Yes, under any circumstances I really could not have asked for better colleagues."

She looked thoughtful for a second before responding, "So what do you think of me?"

Truthfully, since their conversation about templars and vows, he thought of her quite a bit. Those thoughts often involved undressing her, his fingers finding all the hidden latches in his armor and revealing the planes of her skin. He imagined he would start first with the tie in her hair, and he would watch while her hair fell in waves across her face. Then he would move onto her gloves, loosening each finger until the whole thing slid off her hands smoothly. Next he would unlace her boots and slip them off before moving on to the plates on her torso. He would leave her breast band on while he worked his way through the armor on her legs and he would take his time, watching as her whole body flushed and her breathing became more and more shallow. And then finally, he would free her pert breasts from their band, caressing one at a time, until each nipple pebbled between his hands. At this point he hoped she would be squirming a little, eager for his hands to explore the rest of her. And he would do as she wanted because he would be eager too, but first he'd slide her panties off her hips and press his fingers against—

"Cullen?"

Her voice snapped him out of his daydream. "Are you alright? You seem a little distracted."

'Distracted' didn't quite seem to capture what he was feeling at that moment, he thought. 'Aroused' would be much more accurate. 'Humiliated at being caught musing about undressing a female colleague and sporting a half-hard erection while she stood in front him and asked him completely innocent questions' would be the perfect way to put it though.

"I'm alright, thank you."

"Was my question too blunt? Am I bothering you? I'm sorry, you must have much more important things on your mind right now." She looked so dejected and he wanted to bang his head against the nearest shield he could find.

"No, no! You're not bothering me." He reached for the hilt of his sword and gripped it tight in an attempt to rein in the urge to flee from this conversation and into the sanctity of his bedroom where he could take care of his arousal or throw daggers at dummies and contemplate his complete ineptitude when it came to this particular woman. Or both.

"Well, if you say so. Regardless I think that we should just... uhm, talk later?"

She made to turn around and leave, but he interrupted, "Wait! I... I think very highly of you. The Inquisition is fortunate that it was you that stepped out of the Fade at the Temple."

He received a wide smile in response, and it eased some of the awkwardness that had built up in the space between them. _'Look at that, Cullen. That was almost coherent.'_ He shuddered to think of what Mia would say if she were here to witness this.

"I think very highly of you too. You've done a marvelous job with the recruits—I see conviction in their eyes when they fight and I know that it was you who put it there."

"I—Thank you."

"I also think that you're very handsome." All at once, her face registered a look of shock. One, he assumed, that mirrored his own. _'Did she just say that?'_

"You think I'm—"

"You know you are!"

Now her expression was fully stubborn pride, an expression that said, "I can't believe I admitted that but I can't take it back now and I'm going to stand by it."

"You think that I think I'm very handsome." He iterated, just to be clear.

"Yes, of course!" Flustered, she gestured vaguely at his face and then to the rest of his body. "I mean, look at your jaw! And your shoulders, and—"

"I think you're beautiful."

She froze. He felt his neck heat up as the blush rose to his face.

"Oh. Thank you. Glad to hear it."

"Yes, well," He cleared his throat and rubbed the back of his neck. "It's true."

She smiled up at him demurely and he was bewitched. He couldn't look away.

"So I... have a lot to do today. And you do too, I imagine. Let's continue this later?"

"Yes, later sounds... good."

"Good." She repeated as she stepped backwards away from him. "Oh and by the way, I'm glad it was me who stepped out of the Fade too."

She turned completely to walk away with another smile and a short wave of her fingers as a means of saying goodbye, and he couldn't help but note that the sway of her hips was decidedly more pronounced than usual.

_'Andraste preserve me.'_

**Author's Note:**

> I really love how awkward Cullen and the Inquisitor are at the beginning of the romance. The idea that these two powerful characters could reduce each other to incoherent mush makes my heart happy. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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